What is Tabata you ask? Just like HIIT, Tabata incorporates periods of work with periods of rest. During the period of work, you work at 100% intensity (maintaining proper form of course), then you partially recover during a short rest. The fact that you never "fully" recover is part of what makes this workout so effective. Typically the "work" period is 20 seconds and the "rest" period is only half of that or 10 seconds. This type of exercise was discovered by the Japanese researcher Izumi Tabata, who was known for his work with Olympic speedskaters. Tabata's research showed both aerobic and anaerobic benefits from this type of exercise. For HIIT workouts, you're typically doing high-impact moves that are more "cardio", but for a tabata workout, you can do strength exercises as well as cardio exercises. Due to the high intensity nature of the workout, tabata workouts are typically shorter than a traditional workout. You can use the Tabata protocol with almost any exercise, but lucky for you I put one together for you! The traditional tabata workout is designed to do the same exercise for the whole workout, but what is the fun in that? The first section is four cardio exercises, and the second section is four strength exercises, but don't worry - I squeezed some burpees in there too. Grab your stopwatch (or your favorite interval timer app) and let's go!

Notes about this workout:

Some of the moves in this workout are high-impact. Please feel free to modify the workout to make them low-impact if necessary.

This workout is designed in an ON/OFF format. When you are ON, you want to give the exercise EVERYTHING you've got. When you're OFF, walk around and keep your feet moving.

The whole workout once through is 9 minutes (4 minutes cardio, 1 minute burpees and 4 minutes strength). Start with a little warm-up (walking/jogging) to get your muscles warm. Challenge yourself and try and go for a second round!

Be sure to stretch at the end of the workout. Check out some post-workout stretches from Health.com.